Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to wireless communication systems that implement techniques for a common or unified synchronization signal.
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
By way of example, a wireless multiple-access communication system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, otherwise known as user equipments (UEs). A base station may communicate with UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a base station to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to a base station).
A wireless multiple-access communication system may use frequency division multiplexing (FDM) to multiplex different users within a frequency band. For example OFDMA uses orthogonal sub-carriers or tones to provide defined resource elements. A numerology for an OFDMA system defines the sub-carrier spacing, symbol length, and cyclic prefix ratio. Different OFDMA systems may use different numerologies. When different OFDMA systems are present, the frequency bands used by the systems are generally separated by a guard band with no transmissions.
The 5G mobile standard is currently being formulated and calls for higher data transfer speeds, greater numbers of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. The 5G standard, according to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, is expected to provide data rates of several tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, with 1 gigabit per second to tens of workers on an office floor. Several hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported in order to support large sensor deployments. Consequently, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly enhanced compared to the current 4G standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiencies should be enhanced and latency should be substantially reduced compared to current standards.
Accordingly, there is a need for development of better transmission/processing techniques for wireless data transmission to meet different requirements of different applications/users at the same time.